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Villa's Barry hopes Russia display keeps his England place

Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry hopes he's done enough to keep his place in England's midfield after another superb performance against Russia last night.

Barry said: "You wait for your chance and when it comes you try and seize it. I've had to wait so long because there are so many quality players around. I've done myself no harm and I look forward to meeting up again hopefully.

"It's been something different for me really; to play back to back qualifiers at Wembley doesn't come around too often.

"I've waited a long time to get my chance and I've certainly enjoyed the last two games. It was nice to come in for two great performances from all the lads.

"To come in and play alongside someone like Steve (Gerrard), that can make your job easier. I knew my role and I knew international football. You can get a lot of the ball in the holding role and I was happy with the way the two games went."

Reflecting on a successful four days for England, Barry, who set up the opening goal for Michael Owen, added: "We knew there was a lot of pressure building up because of the league position we were in, but we got six points and six goals - you can't ask for much more than that.

"We knew we performed well against Israel, but we knew we were going to have to raise our game. The way we started the game and took the game to them was great and to go 2-0 up was a relief for us.

"There were a couple of nervy moments. There was the disallowed goal and then they had the chance straight after half-time, which would have made it harder for us.

"But if you're going to succeed, you're going to need that bit of luck sometimes as well."